1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to a printing control terminal device, and a method of printing an XML (extensible markup language) paper specification (XPS) file. More particularly, the present general inventive concept relates to a printing control terminal device and a method of printing an XPS file to generate print data for an XPS file to minimize losing information included in the XPS file.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, an image forming apparatus such as a copier, a printer, a facsimile, or a multi function peripheral (MFP) which integrates the functions of the copier, printer, facsimile, etc., operates to print the print data generated by a terminal such as a computer onto a recording sheet.
Image forming apparatuses which have been recently introduced support direct printing on print data written in a printable document format (PDF), a tagged image file format (TIFF), a joint photographic experts group (JPG), or the like. The direct printing refers to a process where a printing job is directly performed only by transmitting a document to be printed to an image forming apparatus without executing an additional application program on a terminal device such as a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a digital camera, or the like.
There is an XPS file which supports such a direct printing. An XPS file is an electronic file having a fixed-layout that preserves document formatting and can be shared, and refers to a zip-formatted file which includes all kinds of data and resources described by systematizing all resources required for documents or operations in a directory structure and by writing the references therebetween in XML.
However, the operation of converting an XPS file into print data capable of being recognized by the image forming apparatus is needed in order that the image forming apparatus on which an XPS emulator is not mounted outputs such an XPS file. There has been a problem that information set on an XPS file is lost since a conventional printer driver generates print data using only the data provided by an application program. For instance, if a printing option ‘4-up’ is set on an XPS file, a conventional printer driver cannot perform a printing job suitable for an intention of a user due to a default ‘1-up’.
In addition, a conventional driver performs a printing job without authorization even when information on a digital signature is set on an XPS file, causing a problem regarding security.
Moreover, when a printing control terminal device on which an XPS driver is not installed outputs an XPS file through an XPS viewer, the printing control terminal device loses information set on the XPS file.